December 2007 Reutlinger Tagblatt

The astronaut Hans Schlegel has been in quarantine for 14 days and he will take part in the mission STS-122 and control the international space station with the space shuttle Atlantis. Thus, according to Thomas Reiter, a German is again on the way to space. He will help to install the first European Space Laboratory "Columbus" which is used for research purposes under simulated space conditions. As headlined in newspapers in 1987, Schlegel made Reutlingen the astronaut city. He has now already been away from Achalmstadt for almost 20 years, yet that is not important for Bernd Lutz. He has been in contact since then with his previous work colleague who was employed in the same research department as a physicist at the Reutlingen INSTITUT DR. FOERSTER. "The contact has never been completely broken, we have written to each other and also met occasionally" , says Lutz, himself a physicist and currently Development Controller at the well known Reutlingen company which manufactures equipment for material testing and also for satellite technology.